A local news station in San Francisco has uncovered a story that will add fuel to the anger about lawlessness in the city and the DA's office's policies when it comes to freeing suspects from custody.
A woman who only gave her name as Valeria, an immigrant from Mexico who has lived in SF for 17 years, tells ABC 7's Dion Lim that she was out jogging in the Potrero Hill area on September 2, 2020 when she was approached by a man on a skateboard twice. The man then allegedly shoved her to the ground and got on top of her in the vicinity of San Bruno Avenue, near a bridge under which some homeless people were camped.
Valeria luckily managed to escape through a door in a chain-link fence and run to a nearby mechanic shop for help. She was able to snap photos of the attacker, identified later as 25-year-old Allen Stewart, of whom police were already aware. Stewart had been arrested last April for felony robbery and assault, after allegedly hitting another man over the head with his skateboard near the Jackson Square/Gateway Safeway.
Stewart was arrested shortly after Valeria's assault for kidnapping and false imprisonment, but was then was apparently freed from custody with an ankle monitor, as ABC 7 reports.
He was then arrested again in late November after allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in a parking garage in SoMa.
According to court records, Stewart was booked on December 2 on charges including rape by force or violence or threat of bodily injury. He's due back in court on March 17, and appears to be remaining in custody this time.
"I want genuine help," Valeria tells ABC 7. "I want genuine help for myself and for the other people that he assaulted. I want him to stay in jail."
She says she came to the U.S. and is raising a three-year-old daughter here because, "I thought that the United States was safe."
Valeria also doesn't want any more women to go through what she has gone through, which has included insomnia and anxiety following the trauma of her assault. "I need for them to be more attentive and to tell me or explain to me what is happening with him in there," she says, "especially this kind of abuse is very hard to overcome."
Boudin did not respond to Lim's requests for comment in the case — and she notes that he has declined all her requests since doing a live interview with her following the New Year's Eve double-hit-and-run involving a parolee in SoMa.
The news of the case follows on several high-profile cases in just the last two months involving previously arrested and/or ankle-monitored felons who reoffended in more extreme and in some cases violent ways.
One suspect in a carjacking last month that ended up being a kidnapping of two small children was also wearing an ankle monitor for a previous felony car robbery. And a man who allegedly caused an eight-car collision near Lake Merced that killed a 26-year-old jogger was arrested for DUI in a stolen vehicle, in addition to vehicular manslaughter — and he was previously arrested for the same crimes, minus the manslaughter, in December.
The fatal New Year's Eve crash in SoMa also involved a felon on parole who was allegedly under the influence, driving a stolen car, and fleeing from another crime.
We'll update this story if and when the DA's office gives comment.
Anyone who wishes to help Valeria with medical expenses can donate to a GoFundMe set up by her husband, Marco Arias.
"Since this traumatic event, my wife is afraid to run outside and now suffers from insomnia," Arias writes. "My wife also has a house cleaning business, but has lost many clients due to the effects of the traumatic event. She now has difficulty concentrating on her work and performing basic tasks needed to run her business."
He says all money donated will be used to help the family relocate because they no longer feel safe in their neighborhood.
Photo via Marco Arias/GoFundMe
